This was a fun race - after doing long distance races and triathlons, it's fun to be able throw on a pair of shorts and shoes and just go running!!!

I started near the front line, with about 100 runners and lots of kids I did not want to get stuck behind a large group of slower people. By the time five minutes had gone by, we were out onto the straight roadway, and I was able to see the rest of the field. I was amazed that I could still see the first runner - usually they are long gone by then.

At the one mile point I had a 6 minute, 58 second split - which is a little fast for me. I mentally reassessed where I was, and felt that "what the hell, lets see if I can break my old time". I tried to concentrate on a quick leg turnover, and keeping my breathing at a level that would be substainable for another two miles.

At mile two, my split of 14'30" was a little slower, but still OK. I focused on trying to maintain my pace, and not to let any males pass me. I could still see the front runners, and it looked like I was in 8th place. I was hoping that I would be able to place in my age group if I could hold that pace.

Eventually, two females did pass me - I joked with them that females are OK, but a male would be a race to the death. By mile 3, I was in 10th place, with just a tenth of a mile to go. All of a sudden, I heard the unmistakeable sound of someone trying to pass me. All I could think of is that a 45-50 year old male was coming up to take my spot on the Podium. I kicked out with everything I had in me, and the person still caught up to me briefly - I was able to see that it was a young girl, but I thought, the hell with that, she's not going to pass me right in front of the chute!!! So I went totally anarobic, with a sprint like you would expect in a 50 yard dash (which is about what we had left). I pulled away from her, and just about wiped out the people working the chute as I had a heck of a time getting slowed down once I crossed the finish line.

As they were taking off my race number, I steadied myself on one of my friends working the chute - I'm sure my heartrate was the highest it had ever been. As I walked away, I saw this young girl, around 18 years old, with her hand over her mouth, walking over to the fence, looking like she was going to heave. I'm thinking to myself, that will teach you to try to pass me!!!! I thought about asking her if she was Ok, but she looked like she just needed to be left alone at that moment so I did.

Later that morning, I met that same girl at we were looking at the results that had just been posted. She was commenting to her father that "she tried to pass this old guy, but just couldn't do it". I intoduced myself, and thanked her for helping me run the best 5k of my life. She told me that she was dumbfounded that she could not catch me, as not only is she on the high school track team, but her speciality is the shorter, sprinting races.

I walked away in awe, that in 4 short years, I have gone from a guy that couldn't run a quarter mile if my life depended on it, to someone that is beating high school track team members (that are half my age) at their own game.










This was a perfect race for me - I have not been doing any speed work, since I am training (and tapering) for a marathon in 2 weeks. All the distance and hill work seemed to have help though, as I was able to cut 1 minute and 30 seconds off my run time, and finish 3 in my age group (and bring home hardware) and tenth overall.

Jogged back to where my wife was on the course, and ran the rest of the way in with her and her friend.


This is the forth time I have done this race - the first year I walked it, in 54 minutes. The second year I ran it, with a time of around 27 minutes. The third year I ran it in a time of 23 minutes, 37 seconds. This year, I cut my time down to 22 minutes, 7 seconds.



Awards ceremony stretched out a little bit too long, but the whole thing is done manually so I guess that is to be expected. Overall very well organized, and well done.